Metropolitan Methodios hosted Boston area religious leaders at the Metropolis to Discuss the issue of Physician Assisted Suicide

On October 9, 2012 Metropolitan Methodios hosted Boston area religious leaders at the Metropolis to discuss the issue of Physician Assisted Suicide. Below are his opening remarks.

I
am deeply grateful to all of you who took the time from your very busy
schedules to come today to discuss an issue of great importance.

I
note the great diversity of brethren who are here, not only from the Christian
community but from the greater Ecumenical community including members of the
Islamic community. Our Jewish brethren
are not here because they are celebrating a High Holy Day.

I indeed hope that our meeting today
will lead to collaboration and cooperation on other issues in the future. A special word of thanks to Fr. David Michael
and Vito Nicastro for organizing today’s meeting.

Todays’ discussion will revolve around
question two on the Massachusetts ballot next month—specifically legislation concerning
physician assisted suicide. Patients
diagnosed with a terminal illness and given a prognosis of less than 6 months
to live would have the ability to request a lethal prescription to end their lives.

For centuries now, all doctors take the Hippocratic
Oath promising to practice medicine ethically and honestly, never doing harm to
a patient. This proposed law would be
impossible to control, and would have serious societal ramifications.

The Orthodox church believes that to
elevate euthanasia to a right or an obligation would bring it into direct
conflict with the fundamental ethical affirmation that as human beings we are
custodians of life which comes from a source other than ourselves. Furthermore, the immense possibilities, not
only for error but also for decision making based on self-serving ends which
may disregard the fundamental principle of the sanctity of human life, argue
against euthanasia.

Generally speaking, the Orthodox Church
teaches that it is the duty of both physician and family to make the patient as
comfortable as possible and to provide the opportunity for the exercise of
patience, courage, repentance and prayer.
The church has always rejected inflicted and unnecessary voluntary
suffering and pain as immoral; but at the same time, the Church also has
perceived in suffering a positive value that often goes unrecognized in the logic
of the world in which we live, a world characterized by secularism,
materialism, and individualism.

Euthanasia is a Greek word meaning “a
good death”. The only “euthanasia”
recognized in Orthodox ethics is that death in which the human person accepts
the end of his or her life in the spirit of moral and spiritual purity, in hope
and trust in God, and as a member of His kingdom.

Presently we will hear a presentation on
the moral and ethical issues revolving around physician assisted suicide, then
a word from George Kronin on the campaign against question two on the ballot,
and then we want to hear and exchange views from everyone present and Cardinal
O’Malley will give closing remarks.

The Orthodox church joins our brethren
in the Ecumenical community, the American Medical Association, the Mass Medical
Society and all people of good will in opposing question two on election day.

I have the pleasure of inviting to the
podium Dr. Peter Cataldo who is the bioethicist for the Archdiocese of Boston.